Catheter
by Thispe
Summary: House and Wilson discuss House’s recent problems and Wilson draws a conclusion. HW slash strongly implied. Small spoilers for 'HalfWit' and 'Top Secret'.


**Spoiler Warning:** This story contains spoilers for 'Half-Wit' and for the unaired (as of yet) episode 'Top Secret'. If you don't want to know don't read any further. I posted the specific spoilers at the end of the story.

**Summary**: House and Wilson discuss House's recent problems and Wilson comes to some conclusions. H/W slash strongly implied.

**Medicine:** Keep in mind that, though I did research and got help for medical information, my writing concerning medicine is not necessarily factual in all aspects.

**Disclaimer: **This is a work of fiction, I don't own House and I don't make any money with this.

**Many Thanks** to the wonderful elvabarr for twisting my words at just the right places, and DarkKrystal for cleaning up my horrible punctuation. 

**Catheter**

"House!" Wilson called out from behind his desk, stopping the other man in midstep and preventing him from leaving his office.

House turned around. "Yeah?" he drawled, comfortably leaning back against the door.

"You put in a catheter today!" Wilson said, his brain starting to put two and two together.

"Way to state the obvious, Wilson. You were there; you know I did."

Wilson's eyes narrowed. "And now you want a prescription to solve your problem."

House stopped smirking and raised his eyebrows mockingly. "So I like peeing, your point?"

"My point is, Acute Urinary Retention - the causes differ, but at your age an enlarged prostate would be the number one suspect. However, I know for a fact that your prostate is perfectly fine."

House leered and opened his mouth to say something, undoubtedly crassly indecent, but Wilson stoically ignored him.

"It can't be because of morphine, I know you've managed without since the Ketamine. Bladder stones would have you screaming bloody murder and the medication I prescribed wouldn't help with that anyway, same for infection. So tell me House, what else could cause a man like you to suddenly lose his ability to urinate?"

House shrugged, he seemed to be strangely uncomfortable now under Wilson's penetrating gaze.

"It's all the rage these days," he said flippantly, "and you know how much I like to be one of the cool kids."

Wilson thoughtfully tapped his pen against his chin until something occurred to him. There was something else that could cause this, something that was so laughingly unbelievable, that it just had to be true.

"House, are you taking antidepressants?" he asked bluntly; knowing that sometimes, blunt was the only way to get through to House.

House hesitated, "Maybe." Not wanting to look up, he stared at a spot on Wilson's desk.

"God forbid this comes across as _discouraging_, because I'm not trying to be, but I am curious. Why? Why now? They suggested antidepressants after the infarction and you reacted so badly to the idea that to this day, Dr. Fink is _still_ going out of his way to avoid you. You didn't want any antidepressants in your pain management plan either, so the question is…what changed

House didn't say anything, but Wilson took it as a good sign - he hadn't left yet, storming away with a scathing remark. It meant that he might just get some answers yet.

"I made you believe I was dying," House finally said. Wilson raised his brows in surprise; he hadn't expected _that_.

"I thought it was none of my business?" he said mildly, keeping his voice deliberately calm even though he was still furious with his friend for that stunt; if he judged House's mood correctly, getting emotional would just lead the man to silence.

"I was wrong," House finally admitted. "I still think it wasn't any of their business." He jerked his head in the general direction of the door. Though it could've implied the whole hospital, or the even the rest of the world, Wilson took that to mean Cuddy and his fellows. "But… I shouldn't have lied to you. I didn't mean to hurt you."

Coming from House, that was a major concession, and one Wilson hadn't expected in a million years. House wasn't looking at him, and Wilson was glad because it took him a minute to stop gaping.

"And this is your way of making it up to me?'"

House shrugged again and looked up. "I guess," he reluctantly admitted. Wilson felt a grin spread over his face that he made no effort to hide.

"Thank you"

Still grinning, he pretended not to notice the slight blush spreading over House's face. He knew what this meant; this was House's way to show that he cared; this was his way to promise that he wouldn't pull something like that again. Most importantly, this was his way to show that he wanted to live and that he was trying to make things better. As gestures went, this one was grand, and nothing could have made Wilson happier.

"Yeah, well," House said "don't think anything about it, I just didn't want you to move back to that dingy hotel room; I like to have a live-in maid and I miss the meals."

And that, Wilson assumed, was probably as close as House would ever come to saying 'I love you, and I don't want to lose you'. It was more than enough for him, certainly more than he had ever expected. His grin widened.

"So… Pizza tonight? My treat."

**Spoilers:** In 'Half-Wit' Wilson concludes that House is depressed, in Top Secret House has problems urinating and first inserts a catheter and then later asks Wilson for a prescription to solve his problem


End file.
